TV Review - Russian Doll (2019)

Natasha Lyonne has been acting since she was a child. Most people probably remember her for her role in American Pie (1999). She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in Orange is the New Black. Aside for a few, independent films, she's never really had the lead or something built around her. It's probably not surprising that this series is a vehicle, produced, written and even directed for one episode by Lyonne herself. She co-creates this series with Leslye Headland (Terriers) and Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation). Given that Lyonne also stars in this series, it can't help but feel like her singular voice, even in the writing and direction here.

Lyonne stars as Nadia Vulvokov, a crass New Yorker whose friends have thrown her a birthday party. The night of the party is filled top to bottom with people, music, alcohol and food. She enjoys the party, but she leaves to have a one-night-stand with a random guy who was there. On the way back to the party, she's accidentally killed. Yet, at the moment of her death, she is magically transported back in time to the start of the party, specifically to a moment when she was in the bathroom staring at herself in the mirror.

What proceeds is a version of Groundhog Day (1993). That film by Harold Ramis was about a man who keeps repeating the same day. He's in what's come to be known as a time-loop. It's now a science-fiction trope that's been used in a half-dozen or more films and even TV shows. Most don't do the concept all that well. They can have fun with the trope, but that's about it. This series does have fun with it and uses it as a character study to drive home a point.

Watching Lyonne is obviously a big draw for anyone who will potentially experience this series. She's funny, whip-smart and a little sardonic. She's also perhaps a little vulgar. She's got a raspy voice and long, curly, red hair. She's also a bit of a spitfire. Nadia doesn't really connect with guys. She'll have sex with them but that's about it. She's more concerned about her cat than a man. Nadia works at a tech company as a programmer. She's more able to deal with computers than people. In a way, she's selfish and self-involved. A lot of it probably stems from her past. The point of her being in the time-loop is possibly to break her of that selfishness and self-involvement. However, what makes this different from other Groundhog Day copycats is that instead of being about one person stuck in a time-loop, this series is about two people stuck in a time-loop.

Charlie Barnett (Secrets and Lies and Chicago Fire) co-stars as Alan Zaveri, a man with obsessive compulsive disorder who is planning a trip with his girlfriend. He was even going to propose to her. He plays a lot of video games. He has a good job that affords him a really nice apartment, but his job isn't clearly identified. His mom is a doctor. Yet, he believes that he doesn't need medical help, especially when it's clear he has emotional problems. He does make moral judgments, whereas Nadia does not. He's not a jerk though. He's a good person but mostly keeps to himself.

Nadia realizes that he's going through the time-loop with her and she makes it her mission to figure out why. While Lyonne gives a great performance as she normally does, and even though this whole thing is a vehicle for her, the real standout is Barnett. He really doesn't come into the narrative until the fourth episode, but yet this series provides a better platform for Barnett to shine than even Lyonne. I appreciate that because Barnett's character here is not one that we often get in film or TV.

He's a young black man dealing with a mental illness. It's not some crazy mental illness resulting in crazy or extreme violence. Yes, there is violence of a sort, but it's not the extreme acts of most TV shows or film. The examination of the kind of depression or mental state of a young black man, a mental state not rooted in poverty or racism, makes this series a cut above. However, I am a little disturbed by the ending or the conclusion that is drawn from this whole scenario.

Spoiler alert!

Deconstructing that conclusion would constitute a spoiler. Essentially, by the end, we learn that both Nadia and Alan are repeating the same day. They repeat that day when each one of them dies. Both normally die at the end of the night, which resets them both. They learn that if they survive the night and don't die, they can go forward in time, but if either one dies, then the other will also die in some fashion, sometimes spontaneously.

While this is clever, it closes off a storyline that could have been explored. That storyline would have been seeing one of the two go on living for weeks, months and years and then having to reset, but that's a minor quibble. My real concern is about the ending, which is basically the two of them realizing that the time-loop began because Alan committed suicide. Nadia noticed Alan in his friend's store, but she decided to ignore him. Alan then goes off and kills himself, so they conclude that in order to end the time-loop permanently, Nadia has to stop Alan from committing suicide.

I agree that the idea that if you see a person who is having trouble or seems distressed or drunk as Alan is when Nadia seems him, it's a good thing to reach out to the person and try to help them. Letting a lonely person know that they're not alone is also a good thing. However, I don't agree that a random person should have that kind of burden or responsibility thrust or forced upon them.

In the series, we see that Alan has a mom named Dr. Zivari, played by Tony-winner Lillias White. Alan also has a best friend named Ferran, played by Ritesh Rajan. I don't understand why they aren't charged to do something about Alan's suicide. The same place where Nadia first sees Alan is in the exact store where Ferran works, so why is she put into a time-loop with Alan but Ferran isn't? Why is this random woman the one?

It dances a little too close to the white savior complex that has been much maligned in culture. This series avoids the complex in lots of ways. For example, the fourth episode is told entirely from Alan's point-of-view. Long stretches go by without us ever seeing Nadia, so that white savior complex is diminished if not outright dismissed. Yet, it still seems problematic to say that it's the duty of every random person to take responsibility for any random person they happen to pass who might be having issues because they could be suicidal. In a city like New York City, that could be rather unfair.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 30 mins. / 8 eps.

Available on Netflix.